Pepper's Needs Some Help With Pass Rush.........

Bears DE Julius Peppers isn’t having standout season, but he needs some help
by Sean Jensen sjensen@suntimes.com November 5, 2011 12:26AM

Updated: November 5, 2011 12:39AM


Julius Peppers, who has sacked Michael Vick more than any other NFL player, isn’t interested in that stat or in the Monday night spotlight. ‘‘We need a win,’’ he told me emphatically. ‘‘That’s what’s important. Monday night and all that other stuff is irrelevant. We need a win.’’

Peppers is right, of course. (Yeah, so at least one guy admits that it's a very crucial game)

The Bears hold the No. 6 playoff position in the NFC, but they need to start stringing together some victories and distancing themselves from other teams in the conference. But if the Bears are going to get rolling, they need their defense to steady itself and provide the consistency it did late last season.No defensive player is more important than Peppers, but he needs help — a lot of it.

Peppers leads the Bears with four sacks, but that’s tied for 30th in the NFL. The greater problem, though, is the lack of production from his supporting cast. They say sacks come in bunches, and that has held true for the Bears. They had five against the Atlanta Falcons in the season opener and five about a month later against the Minnesota Vikings. But they were shut out once and held to one in three other games. The Bears are 27th in the league in sacks per pass play. (It's about time someone had a sit down with Rod Marinelli about this. Creating sack meisters is supposed to be his specialty. WTF is up with this Rod?)

Peppers is doing a decent job of getting pressures. According to Pro Football Focus, he’s tied for eighth with 18. But Israel Idonije is the only other Bears defender on that list, and he’s 33rd with 10. Peppers was relatively quiet in a couple of games, but he was absolutely dominant against the Vikings (two sacks) and played through a knee injury against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to pressure Josh Freeman, including on the game-sealing interception by D.J. Moore. (The pressures are nice but they're not drive stalling, intimidating, game changing plays like big sacks can be)

The bye couldn’t have come at a better time for him. ‘‘I’m feeling good; I’m feeling almost 100 percent,’’ he said. ‘‘It was important to get that time off.’’ But Peppers needs help. Amobi Okoye has been a pleasant addition, notching a sack in the last two games. But Henry Melton virtually has disappeared after getting two sacks in the season opener. Even with the Bears’ sometimes-generous statistics, Melton has only one tackle in the last three games. Matt Toeaina, meanwhile, has been slowed by a knee injury. (Melton needs to grab some serious pine time and while Okoye and Paea get the starters reps for awhile. It would be nice to get Toe back soon too. That threesome in rotation has played better than one with AA and Melton. Melton has been a big disappointment lately)

But perhaps the biggest issue has been the health of Corey Wootton, who flashed plenty of potential at the end of his rookie season. The former Northwestern standout showed up to camp in terrific shape, but he injured a knee and required arthroscopic surgery. Then he broke his left hand after a brief return. If not for the knee injury, Wootton might have pushed Idonije for a starting job. But now he’s just trying to get healthy and prepare for another late-season push. (Yeah, and all because Lovie was an idiot for allowing him to play ST coverage in a meaningless preseason game)

‘‘It’s been very frustrating because of how I worked in the offseason, preparing to be an integral part of this defensive line,’’ he said. ‘‘But sometimes it’s not where you start but where you finish.’’ (Let's just hope he doesn't have to spend the rest of the year rehabbing again?

There's no question that we need a lot more in the way of sacks from our front four. We don't blitz worth a damn. Pep and Izzy are getting in there but we've played some very mobile QB's who've done well at avoiding the closer and scurried out of trouble.

We're missing the inside rush that's collapses the pocket and leaves the QB with nowhere to go to avoid the rush. Ever since that first game Henry Melton has disappeared and he should be replaced by Okoye at the UT spot. Paea should be teamed up with him at NT since those two are the only ones inside who are getting to the QB consistently and collapsing the pocket. We should be grateful we picked those two up in the offseason or we'd no inside rush period.

The guy I've been a little disappointed in has been Nick Reed. It's not that he's been ineffective in general but I really thought he'd have some sacks by this time and he hasn't. Rod Marinelli has this rep for being one of the best DLine coaches in the NFL yet this is all we can get out of these guys????? If we fail to make the playoffs after almost making it to the Super Bowl last year this coaching staff needs a serious re-evaluation. We need consistenly above average performance not a swing for the fences every three or four years.

Looks like we're not the only ones noticing that Melton needs a swift kick in the ass to get him jump started again. The key to our inside pass rush come from that UT spot and he's not getting it done.

Lovie Smith expects to see more from Henry Melton
By Mark Potash mpotash@suntimes.com November 4, 2011 9:38P
Updated: November 5, 2011 2:10AM


When the Bears played the Philadelphia Eagles last season, Henry Melton didn’t make a big impact on the stat sheet — he had one tackle — but he still made an impact on the game, primarily as a third-down defensive tackle.

On the first series, Melton fought through a double team that allowed Israel Idonije to sack Michael Vick to force a punt. On the Eagles’ second possession, Melton pressured Vick into an incompletion that forced the Eagles to settle for a field goal. On the Eagles’ third possession, Melton had the initial pressure that forced Vick to scramble for a gain short of a first down.

That’s the Henry Melton that coach Lovie Smith wants to see on every play as a starter, not just as a situational player. And Melton said Thursday he has gotten the message. ‘‘I’ve been trying to work as hard as I did last year,’’ Melton said. ‘‘When I was coming in and getting limited snaps, I would just go out there and every time go as hard as I could. That’s what I’m trying to do now.’’

Melton, who has struggled to make an impact after getting two sacks and six quarterback pressures in the opener against the Atlanta Falcons, had no problem with Smith letting him know the team expects more out of him in the second half. (It's about time somebody let him know what his position means to the pass rush and if he can't do it there's a guy sitting behind him whose proven he can)

‘‘It’s great motivation,’’ he said. ‘‘It shows me he believes I can do it and that everyone wants me to do it. There were high expectations of me coming into the season, that they expect out of me, my teammates expect out of me and what I expect out of me. So I [had] a great start. . . . I’ve been close the last few weeks, but I just haven’t made the plays I made at the start. I’ve got to make those plays.’’ (Yeah, there were very high expectations of you and yeah it's well past the time when you need to start making plays)

This defense needs a great pass rush from the front four to work the way it's designed to. That rush can't be expected to come ONLY from two 30 year old plus DE's. The DT's have got to step it up in this second half of the season. We all talked about the need for that in the offseason and we went out and got two new DT's in Okoye and Paea. Unfortunately neither is starting and the guys who are aren't getting the jobs done.

One more week of sub par play out of Melton and AA and I think Okoye and Paea should be starting. I also think we'd have better play at NT is Toe wasn't out injured. AA is slipping this year. We've really become far too dependent on the 30 year olds in this defense to be the difference makers. We need the younger guys to step up their play and one guy who really needs to do it or sit is Melton.

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Originally Posted by soulman

This defense needs a great pass rush from the front four to work the way it's designed to. That rush can't be expected to come ONLY from two 30 year old plus DE's. The DT's have got to step it up in this second half of the season. We all talked about the need for that in the offseason and we went out and got two new DT's in Okoye and Paea. Unfortunately neither is starting and the guys who are aren't getting the jobs done.

One more week of sub par play out of Melton and AA and I think Okoye and Paea should be starting. I also think we'd have better play at NT is Toe wasn't out injured. AA is slipping this year. We've really become far too dependent on the 30 year olds in this defense to be the difference makers. We need the younger guys to step up their play and one guy who really needs to do it or sit is Melton.

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Well, one thing is for sure: the ghost of George Allen looms large in some NFL circles as some teams, namely the Bears, like to play most 30 year old veterans on their squads! lol

This needs to be Melton's make or break game. He needs to defend the run better as well I feel. Okoye and Paea rotating the 3 tech makes more sense. And for Pete's sake Wootton needs to become a viable option at DE. I don't wish to see another high pick spent on a DE.

Considering most of the big run plays come with Melton in there I'm fine with the okoye and paea duo

Quote:

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Originally Posted by motownbear

Considering most of the big run plays come with Melton in there I'm fine with the okoye and paea duo

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Also : can Conte safety blitz ? Dont know.

That's not a concern to me I like it when Moore is the blitzer

But if you are trying to compare conte blitzing with manning I don't think on same level cause manning was a prety fast safety

Manning was super fast at safety. It took him a while to get that position down though. He missed a lot of big plays early in his career. Its too bad he was let go when he started to be reliable. I agree that Paea and Okoye should be the starting inside guys though. Both are showing their stuff. Hopefully Wootton returns soon and pans out like he is expected to.